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Former Olympic Snowboarder Ryan James Wedding Arrested on Murder and Drug Trafficking Charges
Once a Team Canada athlete, Wedding is now accused by the FBI of leading a vast transnational narcotics operation and ordering multiple killings
Ryan James Wedding, a former Olympic snowboarder who once represented Canada on the world’s biggest sporting stage, has been arrested on serious criminal charges after allegedly spending years on the run in Mexico. The FBI confirmed that Wedding was apprehended Thursday night and is now being transported to the United States to face justice.
Wedding competed in the men’s parallel giant slalom snowboarding event for Team Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. More than two decades later, federal authorities allege that he was living a dramatically different life—one tied to large-scale drug trafficking, organized crime, and murder.
FBI Director Kash Patel announced the arrest on social media, stating that Wedding is believed to have been hiding in Mexico for more than a decade. According to Patel, Wedding was allegedly affiliated with the Sinaloa cartel and played a key role in a transnational drug trafficking network that routinely moved hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, through Mexico and Southern California, and onward to the United States and Canada.
Speaking at a press conference Friday morning at Ontario International Airport outside Los Angeles, Patel described the scale of the alleged operation in stark terms. “Just to tell you how bad of a guy Ryan Wedding is: he went from an Olympic snowboarder to the largest narco trafficker in modern times,” Patel said. “He is the modern-day El Chapo, he is the modern-day Pablo Escobar.”
Akil Davis, assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, revealed that 36 individuals connected to Wedding’s organization have been arrested as part of the investigation. Wedding will remain in custody over the weekend and is expected to make his first court appearance on Monday.
Wedding’s arrest follows years of mounting legal trouble. In March 2025, the FBI placed him on its 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list. An unsealed grand jury indictment released in November detailed sweeping allegations, charging him with overseeing a criminal enterprise that relied on intimidation, violence, and murder to protect its operations, while laundering vast sums of drug proceeds.
Among the most serious accusations is that Wedding ordered the execution of a witness in a separate federal narcotics case. According to the U.S. Justice Department, he allegedly placed a bounty on the victim and hired others to carry out the killing. The witness was shot to death in a restaurant in Medellín, Colombia, in January 2025.
The former athlete also faces charges stemming from an earlier 2024 indictment, which accused him of running a continuing criminal enterprise, committing multiple drug trafficking offenses, and directing the November 20, 2023, murders of two members of a family in Caledon, Ontario, Canada. Prosecutors allege the killings were ordered in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment that passed through Southern California. A third family member survived the attack but was left with serious physical injuries.
Wedding’s dramatic fall—from Olympic competitor to alleged crime boss—has stunned both the sports world and law enforcement officials. As he prepares to face the U.S. justice system, the case stands as a chilling reminder of how far one life can veer from its origins, and how international cooperation remains central to dismantling global criminal networks.
Adam Smith is an accomplished individual who serves as an chief contributor at Healthify Magazine, a leading publication dedicated to promoting health and wellness. With a passion for empowering individuals to live healthier lives, Adam brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to his role.
